How You Ruined A TV Show

Yesterday I wrote about Resident Alien before the series finale could ruin the show for me. Luckily for me, I watched it, and like every other episode, it was awesome. They ended with what they are good at: humor and heart. They did not try to get too complicated or end with a twist. You know what the audience likes. Just reward us for sticking with you for five seasons. And they did.

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WARNING THERE IS A HUGE SPOILER IN THIS POST. But the show ended over a decade ago so I don't think I can be blamed for spoilers.

Sadly, this is not the case for what was one of my favorite sitcoms: How I met You Mother. My wife and I got into HIMYM (as the fans call it) during the second season back in 2006. We watched it first run and then circled back to reruns of the first season as soon as it was available. We found it to be a clever take on the typical "looking for love" trope.

Throughout the first eight seasons, they used clips of the narrator talking to his children in the present day. The entire show is told as if it is a long story the dad is telling his kids about, you guessed it, how he met their mother. The kids also never age so it seems those parts were all filmed during the first season of the show. I thought it was really cool how the following seasons always had to connect to those scenes with the kids.

The show also used some very clever foreshadowing to help solve the mystery of who indeed the mother was. The most famous of these is the yellow umbrella that belonged to the mother. It makes its way into several episodes. Another is an economics class that is later revealed to include the mother. One of my favorites is the mother's bass guitar and her connection to a wedding band. I really appreciated these little breadcrumbs along the way.

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Aside from those clever gimmicks, the show was filled with quirky characters and funny lines. Nothing ever got too deep. The main character Ted is a budding architect who struggles to find the love of his life. His core group of friends are always there to help. This includes the womanizing Barney, the kindergarten teacher who has quite an edge when she isn't in the classroom, Lilly the super loyal man-child Marshall, and his ex-girlfriend and sometimes best friend Robin who is from Canada and used to be a mall pop-star. Its simple. Most of the time they hang out at a bar and crack jokes. Most of the rest of the time they hang out in Ted and Marshall's apartment and crack jokes. It was a very amusing comical diversion with some heart. My wife and I loved it!

And then the final episodes came. To say I was angry at the writers of this show is an understatement. I was furious. Because the entire nine season arc was intended to result in a huge payoff, the ending really mattered. They couldn't screw it up. They needed to show who the mom was, have some laughs and then show the kids, ted and his wife older and happy. That's the kind of show it was. There was never any drama during the nine seasons. Maybe there were some deep conversations about never finding love, but that usually ended with a sex joke. It was a simple, funny, popcorn show that was a nice diversion from real life drama.

Leading up to the final episode, things were going well. You finally meet Tracy, the mom with the umbrella, guitar, and unforgettable eyes. Tracy was perfectly cast and portrayed by the adorable Christin Millioti. I don't use the word 'adorable" lightly. But it is the only way to describe this cute, perky, funny actress and character. If you don't believe me, just check out Palm Springs, Made for Love, or The Resort. She was perfect for the role of the mother we waited so long to meet! They nailed it! They put the perfect bow on a very cute show. They could show her, Ted and the kids happily aging and the fans could think back to those cute scenes whenever they needed a pick-me-up.

And then they killed her.

That is not a typo. The writers killed her. Not only that, we get a scene of Ted silently holding her hand in the hospital as she is dying of cancer.

Then they cut back to the kids and the narrator says things like "That was the year she got sick", and "She was the love of my life".

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Who would look at this scene and say, "She's adorable... let's kill her off!"

Don't get me wrong. I like drama. Not everything has to be a happy ending (unless you are the owner of the New England Patriots). But when a show sets you up for nine seasons to be all cute puppy dogs and ice cream, I think it is a dirty trick to pull the rug out from under the audience and say "Gotcha! She's dead!" Some argue that it was very clever that the writers stuck to this story that was filmed nine years earlier. I call bullshit on that. After nine years of fans dedicating their time and attention to your silly little sitcom, you are allowed to make some changes based on how the show had evolved. If they had worked in a darker edge throughout the nine seasons, I could appreciate the ending. But I think that is a huge cop out. They clearly sold out from their artistic idea to get to make money for nine years. Its annoying to think they can sell out for nine years and then all of a sudden be like "we are true artists!". No. You are sitcom writers. And that is indeed an art. But it is an art with a very specific purpose. This purpose is not to make fools of your audience for getting emotionally involved in your characters' arcs.

The second the episode ended, I looked at my wife and said. "They just ruined that show. There is no reason to ever watch a rerun of it." And as much as I enjoyed that show for nine years, I have never, nor will I ever watch a single episode of it ever again.